23. Chapter 23
23
G avin turned and started across the lobby. Bastian and I followed, with Micah sticking close to my other side, and Thane and Ash flanking us. The other four vampire guardians in the lobby peeled away from the walls and jogged closer to join Thane and Ash in forming a protective barrier between the rest of the world and me.
Gavin picked up speed as he neared the glass double doors. He barreled into them, shoving them open and exploding out into the twilight city. Cars zoomed past, and a siren whined in the distance. Tires squealed and horns blared as Gavin ran into the street, but he had been right. The cars stopped for him.
We raced across the street after Gavin. My heart pounded, my blood whooshing in my ears. Bastian’s hold on my arm was painfully tight, but I didn’t mind because it was a reminder that he was there beside me.
The building on the far side of the street was brick and only a few stories tall. Gavin reached the double doors first, a female vampire close on his heels. They skidded to a stop on the far sidewalk, nearly slamming into the glass double doors, and yanked them open.
The rest of us rushed through the doorway, the immortals filling the building’s lobby with their oversized presence. Two more vampires waited for us in the elevator alcove, arms extended into two of the four elevator cars to hold the doors open.
The few people milling in the generic seating areas arranged on either side of the lobby gawked at my escorts.
We stampeded across the lobby and poured into the two waiting elevator cars, my original entourage joining me in the elevator on the left, while the other vampires filled the elevator on the right. I hugged Micah’s arm, while Bastian maintained his iron hold on my elbow. Thane and Ash stood in the two front corners, Gavin between them, his feet set into a wide, defensive stance.
The doors glided shut. Amaya flickered into view in the gap a moment before they sealed closed. I blinked, and she was standing in front of me inside the elevator.
Gasping, I stumbled backward into the elevator wall, dragging Micah and Bastian with me.
Gavin spun around.
“They’re here!” Amaya warned, her voice echoing eerily in the enclosed space.
The floor dropped as the elevator started its descent.
Amaya flickered out of sight, then reappeared closer to me, her transparent features frantic. “Two dozen shifters. They’re heading for the stairs,” she said, her words coming out in a rush. “Half have already shifted, and the rest have guns. You won’t make it to the portal before they reach the basement.” She glanced over her shoulder at Gavin. “Tell him,” she urged, looking back at me. “Tell him now!”
“They’re here,” I said, stumbling over the words. I tore my stare from Amaya to meet Gavin’s fierce silver eyes. “Two dozen shifters. They’re taking the stairs, and they have guns.”
Gavin’s eyes locked with Bastian’s, and a silent conversation seemed to pass between them. Finally, Gavin nodded, a single dip of his chin. “Follow me,” he said, his attention shifting back to me. The elevator dinged, and behind him, the doors whooshed apart.
We rushed out into a wide, industrial-looking hallway with aged brick walls and exposed pipes and immediately turned right. Gavin led us around two corners, then barreled through a heavy fire door into an expansive, blue-lit space filled with row after row of humming, blinking servers. He turned, heading around the perimeter of the server farm, and we followed.
The sound of another door banging open resounded through the room, and my heart lurched into my throat. Hushed voices and sneaking footsteps joined the electric hum.
“Hurry!” Amaya shouted, blinking into and out of sight in each aisle as I passed.
Bastian released my arm, and a moment later, a dark shadow leapt over my head. I ducked even as I ran, looking up to see a huge panther land silently on top of one of the server towers. Bastian leapt from row to row, his sleek black form guarding us from above.
I glanced over my shoulder, expecting to find eight vampires trailing behind me, but I only found Thane and Ash. Where were the others? Lurking atop the server towers like Bastian? Or slinking down the aisles? I returned my attention to the way ahead as we neared the last row of servers.
Gavin rounded the corner first, Micah and I trailing a few steps behind. He slowed, extending an arm to hold us back.
I looked past Gavin, fear gripping my heart when I saw the four armed Sun warriors in human form stalking toward us behind a huge russet wolf that may very well have been the same woman who had shifted and attacked me in the parking lot of my apartment building.
About midway between us, some thirty feet away, a shadowy vortex swirled in the wall, streaks of midnight lightning flashing in its impossible depths. The portal.
Gavin stopped, one hand raised defensively in front of him. The shifters stopped as well, and for a tense moment, our two groups stared one another down.